一日一成语【65】break the ice

break the ice

香港地区气候温暖，除了冰柜里的冰块之外，一般是没有多少机会看到大块的冰块的。但在地球的另一些地方，一到冬天，便是一片千里冰封的景象，至于像北冰洋这样的地方，更是一年到头都是被冰覆盖着的，break the ice(破冰)便形象地用来比喻打开局面、打破僵局、开辟道路等意义：

At the class meeting, there was a long, embarrassing silence after the teacher’s opening remarks. Finally Jack broke the ice by raising a question.
班会上，在老师的开场白之后，出现了长时间的，令人窘迫的冷场，最后，杰克提个问题，打破了僵局。

Although we did not learn very much during the 3-week training course, yet the ice has been broken and further learning has now been made possible.
虽然在三周的训练班上我们学的不算多，但有了这个开端，再进一步学就有可能了。